John Lane was an American clergyman. He was known as the founder of Vicksburg city.
Background
John Lane, the son of William and Nancy Lane, was born in Fairfax County, Virginia, but when only two years of age was taken by his parents to Elbert County, Georgia. His mother, a devout Methodist, so influenced his early life that he often testified that because of her teaching and example, "he had no recollection of having ever sworn a profane oath, uttered a willful falsehood, played a game of cards, drank a dram of ardent spirits as a beverage, or taken a chew of tobacco" (Jones, post, p. 400).
Education
He spent one year and a half in Franklin College, Georgia.
Career
While at the college, Lane decided to enter the Methodist itinerancy, and on January 12, 1814, was admitted on trial in the South Carolina Annual Conference. In 1815 when Bishop McKendree hesitated, because of Creek uprisings, to send preachers to the Mississippi territory, Lane volunteered for that frontier work and the following year he was a member of the first formal Mississippi Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1821 Lane was forced temporarily to leave the itinerancy. His father-in-law, Newet Vick, a local Methodist minister, died in 1819, leaving a family of ten children, all of them too young to administer their father's estate. Prior to his death Vick had purchased the land upon which the greater part of the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, is now situated. Seeing the commercial possibilities of the site, he had planned to start a city there. Although instructed by Vick's will to carry out his wish, the original executor of the estate felt that it would be more profitable to cultivate cotton on the land and refused to survey and sell the land as building lots. As a result, Lane was appointed to administer the estate. In this work he showed remarkable business ability and despite much litigation executed the plans of his father-in-law and thereby shares with him the honor of being the founder of Vicksburg. Lane became one of the leading merchants of the young city, was a director of the Railroad Bank of Vicksburg, and for a number of years was probate judge of Warren County. In time he was a man of some wealth.
He returned to the itinerancy in 1832. He served sixteen years as a presiding elder and was five times sent as a representative to the General Conferences of the Church. He was largely responsible for the founding (1839) of Centenary College and was for many years the president of its board of trustees. His home in Vicksburg has been described as a "sort of hotel of hospitality. " He donated the land for the first Methodist church in Vicksburg, gave horses to many circuit-riders, and often entertained in his own home an entire Methodist annual conference. He contributed liberally to all benevolent causes. His beneficiaries, however, took advantage of his generosity. It is estimated that during his lifetime he paid one hundred thousand dollars of security money. His death came as a result of exposure while nursing members of his family during the yellow-fever epidemic in Vicksburg in 1855.
Achievements
Lane was an outstanding leader in Mississippi Methodism. As a member of the General Conference of 1844, he was active in the movement that resulted in the schism in the Methodist Episcopal Church and the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church, S. As president of the Missionary Society of the Mississippi Conference he promoted religious work among the Negro slaves.
Connections
On October 27, 1819, Lane was married to Sarah, eldest daughter of Newet Vick.
